I have a sad, sad, sad love for Wilson Phillips. This was my first cassette purchased at the Wherehouse (Blackstone location) in Fresno, California.

The Minnesota State Fair one of the largest and best-attended expositions in the world. The attendance to last night's Wilson Phillips' show at the Leinie Lodge Bandshell was packed. The "no-reserved" seating was basically filled in by six o'clock. Our seats were pretty far back, but it was still a decent view compared to other late comers.

I was rather excited to see Wilson Phillips, because their self-titled debut album was the first cassette I had purchased with my own money twenty-two years ago. I even bought the Elton John's Two Rooms compilation around the same era, so I already knew all about Wilson Phillips' involvement with their cover version of "Daniel."

Anyway, Wendy, Carnie, and Chynna, all looked incredible on stage. Clearly their harmonies can only be achieved by knowing each other as families or close friends.

As expected, most of their set included works from Dedicated, their latest album, covering their parents' music. Lots of Beach Boys and The Mammas & the Pappas, but surprising throwing in an Eagles' song ("Already Gone") and the ABBA medley (which was actually the highlight of their show for me).

Two songs ("It's Only Life" and "You Won't See Me Cry") from Wilson Phillips' second album, Shadows & Light, made it in. Rounding out the rest of their set are their big four hit songs from their self-titled debut album, "Release Me," "You're In Love," "Hold On," and "Impulsive."

Typical big hit song "Hold On," was on the last song on the encore. The band explained that they were just as surprised to find out the song was used at the end of 2011's "Bridesmaid" movie. If you haven't seen the movie, in many ways, the song was the glue that held the two best friends, Annie and Lillian, together.

First thoughts from Dave and Vu on Wilson Phillips' appearance at the Minnesota State Fair on 9/1/2012.

• Description of the annual Minnesota State Fair as "the great get-together." Food, food, food. Something fried, something on a stick.
• Wilson Phillips' various cover and tributes to: Mammas & the Pappas, The Beach Boys, the Eagles, and ABBA.
• Song of the show is Wilson Phillips' "Hold On"

Thursday, 10 May 2012

Meet Emily, the girl who fell in love with The Replacements and moved to Minneapolis in stalking pursuit of Paul Westerberg. Her first show at "the legendary" First Avenue, it was an all-ages show for Built to Spill, while her first cassette purchased was for Dionne Warwick and The Four Tops. Who doesn't love oldies and Motown?

The main focus of the show is Mark Lanegan and his latest album, Blues Funeral, which came out February 2012, via 4AD. This is the first Mark Lanegan Band album since 2004's Bubblegum.

You might know Lanegan as the lead singer of the 90s band Screaming Trees, but he's become known more and more as successful solo artist. His collaboration list is also quite diverse, being in Queens of the Stone Age, The Gutter Twins (with Greg Dulli), and Isobel Campbell (of Belle & Sebastian).

Song of the show is Mark Lanegan Band's "Ode to Sade Disco".

He's currently on tour, Amy & Emily will be seeing him at the Cedar in Minneapolis.

PLUS:
I have a sad, sad, sad love for Wilson Phillips. This was my first cassette purchased at the Wherehouse (Blackstone location) in Fresno, California. The trio is back, and with a new covers album, Dedicated. Check out their live performance of "Good Vibration" via youtube.com. Wendy looks great!

BONUS: Things taken out of context: Emily's rant on the industry failing to grow out of the 60s, Paul Westerberg is a big Twins fan, "Kurt's dead, that's great!", "I'm Vu, Vu-me!". Falsetto, explained… which lead to Jeff Hanson (yes that song I used is by Jeff Hanson!). Emily's first cassingle was Salt-N-Pepa's "Ain't Nuthin' But A She Thing" and Vu was "How Long" by Information Society (that was 1991, I bought the CD Single later on as an upgrade). The cassingle played the same on both side A & B, you can see a scan of the cover here (along with "Think").

If you thought Allo Darlin's single "Capricornia" was a Battlestar Galactica-thing, singer Elizabeth Morris explains it all:

"Capricornia is the area in Queensland that I'm from. It has imaginary state lines, roughly around the Tropic of Capricorn, which runs directly through my hometown. There's a nice 70s monument that marks the spot where the line passes, out on a lonely dirt road where all the kids learn how to drive. My family have lived in this area for over 6 generations but none of my generation remain. It's a beautiful place."

The indie-jangly-pop song is taken from their album, Europe, which is available on Amazon MP3 , but the physical CD to be available somewhen in May via one of my favorite record label Slumberland Records.

Allo Darlin' is said to compare that to Kirsty MacColl, The Go-Betweens, Lucksmiths and Camera Obscura, so you know I am already in love with the band.

Did you happen to hear Sarah Jaffe's music on NPR's "All Songs Considered"? You can listened to songs from her album, The Body Wins, which was released this week (April 24th) via Kirtland Records.

I did get a chance to listen to her new album, it's actually very good. Reminds me a bit of Florence + The Machine, but electronica, with Jaffe's beautiful voice. I can see why Norah Jones asked her to tour with her in 2010.

I also really liked the album's theme, which, at least to me, sounds like you can't fight nature. Phrases like "the body wins" and theme of unquestionable devotion and love … like it was a disease.

Sharon Van Etten is relatively new, but she's been on a hot buzz list since her debut album, Because I Was In Love, in 2009.

Even if you've never heard her folksy music, I'm sure you've heard of her. She seems to be everywhere, whether having a song on the film "Women's Prison", singing on The Antlers' Hospice, covering Morrissey, playing at the annual SXSW, or recently singing with The National for "Think You Can Wait".

Her third studio album, Tramp, came out earlier this year via Jagjaguwar Records and she's going on the long touring road for it. Check out her massive tour dates below. August is a long way from now, but I am hoping to have Emily cover her show for Minneapolis.

I saw Sallie Ford last year, which I admitted to "loving her album, Dirty Radio, since I heard it".

Sallie Ford just recently wrapped up her tour with Wanda "Queen of Rockabilly" Jackson for April, and will be coming around to Minneapolis again this year. You should definitely catch her, if you haven't seen her. See why Paste Magazine calls her "a little bit of Bessie Smith and mix it with a dash of Tom Waits."

Amy Ray is one half of Indigo Girls, a band that was quite popular in the late 80s and early 90s, alongside other Epic acts like Tracy Chapman and Suzanne Vega. When not playing in Indigo Girls, Ray has been putting out solo albums under her own label, Daemon Records.

Her latest album is called Lung of Love, which came out this year in February. She's currently on tour to promote the album. I saw Ray in 2008, and it was one of the best shows I've seen that year because of the Brandi Carlile appearance!

Okay, there's no need to make fun of me, but I have a soft spot for Wilson Phillips. Their self-titled debut album was one of the first cassettes that I've ever purchased. "Some day somebody's gonna make you want to turn around and say goodbye/'Til then, baby, are you going to let them hold you down and make you cry?". LOVE IT.

Their unexpected song appearance at the movie "Bridesmaids" reminded me that the daughters The Beach Boys and The Mamas & the Papas are not forgotten!

I have good news: the band is back with a cover-lover album called Dedicated. Songs covered are entirely by their parents, so expect to hear hits like "California Dreamin'", "Monday Monday", Wouldn't It Be Nice", "God Only Knows", and "Good Vibrations."

I am hoping to see my beloved Wilson Philips at the Minnesota State Fair:

Skyline Pigeons' are two sisters (Roxanne and Caroline Teti) from California. Their debut full-length album is called House of Mysteries is coming out June 5, 2012.

Although their name sounds like it was taken from Elton John, they are described as "Shoegaze-rock/psych-pop". The two sisters have different influences, but it is also what makes their songwriting so diverse and interesting. As Roxanne puts it, "If anything, the fire as well as songwriting has brought me closer to embracing my true identity and working creatively as a musical team made me realize how important community is and the feeling that people are on this earth to help each other. I think our unity is something transcendent in the quality of the music… What really makes this album so special is that every song is so different yet unified by our sound."

Wednesday, 23 January 2008

“Guilt by Association” is a whole album of guilty pleasures re-sung by un or little-known indie d...

I was really inspired by this Journey cover "Don't Stop Believin'" by Petra Haden from purplepez.vox.com, that it had me digging up some other covers of their most famous songs.

I briefly mentioned that Journey had a new Filipino singer called Arnel Pineda (who they discovered him on youtube) on the Terrordactyls article - ONLY because the Terrordactyls last release was on Don't Stop Believin' Records (who's owner is an obvious Journey fan).

You must think I'm hip to this music called rock and roll, but to be honest, my ears and eyes aren't everywhere. I didn't know Petra Haden's name, but I have always loved that dog., The Rentals[W♥M], and The Decemberists[W♥M] (most of these bands were featured on W♥M).

What cracked me up about this "Don't Stop Believin'" cover is that Haden exposed herself as being a huge fan of pop music. Towards the end of the song, she started singing Wilson Phillips' "Hold On" (oh don't you worry: I've gots the Wilson Phillips post coming up♥♥♥).

Rise Against's "Any Way You Want It" cover appeared on their Revolutions Per Minute (2003) album as a hidden track.

If you've never heard of Rise Against, they are a hardcore punk band based out of Chicago. My brother's a big fan of them, as well as their previous incarnation, 88 Fingers Louie... so they're obviously famous.

True to punk, the song is made shorter, but much harder and faster than the original and... But still, for some reason, I don't know, I have this craving for Burger King (the fast food industry have tainted this song forever!)

Randy Crawford brought a different interpretation to Journey's "Who's Crying Now". I get the impression that she's singing as if she's vengeful or something as she's singing "I wonder who's crying now?"

This song appears on her Through The Eyes Of Love (1992), but beyond that I don't really know much about this jazz/R&B singer.

The most interesting thing I've read about her is that she had a smash hit song called "Street Life" with The Crusaders in 1979 (the song stayed on the jazz charts for 20 weeks).

I have her greatest hits and the majority of the hits are actually cover songs. There's an interesting interpretation of Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door". It definitely didn't sound like Dylan ever wrote the song after you've heard Crawford jazz and soul version.

Lorrie Morgan brought a country feel to "Faithfully", I believe this song featured her husband, Keith Whitley, on pianos.

Apparently there was a bit of a controversy revolving around Whitley, who was a renowned alcoholic. After a long weekend of drinking with friends, he was discovered dead at the age of 34 from alcohol poisoning. According to wikipedia, the coroner report stated his blood alcohol level was .477.

Ironically, a film project entitled Forever Yours, Faithfully is being developed. It's about Lorrie Morgan and Whitley's battle with alcoholism.

Anyway, back to Morgan, "Faithfully" appears on her best-selling album, Something in Red (1990).

"Open Arms" cover song was a huge success for Mariah Carey, which went to #2 on Billboard's Pop Singles Chart.

Her version is definitely R&B... in some way very drastically different than Journey's origin. I hate to say it, but doesn't she sound like she's struggling or something ?

This single was taken from her album Daydream (1995). The reason why she ended up doing this cover was because she had employed Journey's drummer, Steve Smith and bassist Randy Jackson to play on some of her earlier recordings.

I would have to admit, I LOVE André Matos metal version of "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)". Check out that shredding!!! It sounds very retro/70s sounding. I love it.

Anyway, the other thing you must know is that Matos is from São Paulo, Brazil, which makes this cover even more incredible.

He was very excited to announced that he's signed to major label Universal in 2007 for Time To Be Free which was released last October. His music is now distributed to Europe, Russia and Japan... so expect to hear more from this guy in the future.